154 Miscellaneous . 



ing the capture. The boy was brought up in Lucknow, where he 

 lived some time, and may for aught I know be living still. He was 

 quite unable to articulate words, but had a dog-like intellect, quick at 

 understanding signs and so on. Another enfant trouvS under the 

 same circumstances lived with two English people for some time. He 

 learnt at last to pronounce the name of a lady who was kind to him 

 and for whom he showed some affection, but his intellect was always 

 clouded, and more like the instinct of a dog than the mind of a 

 human being. There was another more wonderful but hardly so well- 

 authenticated story of a boy who never could get rid of a strong 

 wolfish smell, and who was seen not long after his capture to be 

 visited by three wolves which came evidently with hostile intentions, 

 but which after closely examining him, he seeming not the least 

 alarmed, played with him, and some nights afterwards brought their 

 relations, making the number of visitors amount to five ; the number 

 of cubs the litter he had been taken from was composed of. I think 

 Col. Sleeman believed this story to be perfectly true, though he could 

 not vouch for it. There is no account of any grown-up person having 

 been found among the wolves. Probably after a certain time they 

 may have got into a set of less scrupulous wolves, not acquainted with 

 the family ; the result is obvious. 



Col. Sleeman has, I think, published an account of one of these 

 wolf-boys, but I forget where. 



CARCHARIAS VULPES. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



Weymouth, July 12, 1851. 



Gentlemen, — The following are further particulars of the Fox 

 Shark (Carcharias Fulpes), a notice of which appeared in the * An- 

 nals ' for this present month of July. The extreme length from snout 

 to tip of the tail 12 feet. Length of tail from base to tip 6 feet. 

 Girth in the largest part 3 feet. 



This fish was caught on Saturday, the 21st of June, in a mackerel 

 seine shot in the West Bay from the Chesil Beach. It was apparently 

 in pursuit of a schull of mackerel. 



When inclosed in the seine it occasioned a great deal of damage by 

 constant blows of the tail. 



This shark had evidently been on the coast for some days, as a man, 

 Jonah Fowler (who by the bye is quite a naturalist in his way, and 

 an excellent person with whom to go dredging), told me he was in 

 Portland Roads a day or two before the shark was caught (in the 

 Fairy Yacht) and saw the dorsal of some very large fish floating slowly 

 towards him ; he got ready his boat-hook, and as the fish came along- 

 side he attempted to hook it, but not penetrating it merely frightened 

 the fish, which immediately dived almost perpendicularly, at the same 

 time making a great splash with its tail. It was of a purplish colour 

 in the water ; he has since seen the subject of this notice, and at once 

 identified it as being of the same species, and probably it is the same 

 individual. I am, Gentlemen, yours obediently, 



William Thompson. 



